International Left-Handers Day

August 13 is International Left-Handers Day, a day to celebrate the people we know who are left-handed. Today, being left-handed is seen as a unique attribute. However, in the past, being left-handed was seen as having a link to the Devil and some people used to be forced to become right-handed.

International Left-Handers Day was created by the Left-Handers Club in the U.K. According to the club, the goal of the holiday is to celebrate “those lucky enough to have been born left-handed and also our way of raising awareness among the right-handed majority of the different talents and needs of left-handers, particularly children.”

The Left-Handers Club isn’t the only group that celebrates being left-handed. There is also Left-handers International, which was founded by James S. Borthwick.Although the Left-Handers Club takes credit for the revival of the holiday, Holiday Insights notes that it was celebrated by Left Handers International back on August 13, 1976.

The struggles that left-handers have in our right-handed oriented world are real, for instance, opening a can with a can-opener that is intended for a right-handed person to use, or writing on a spiral notebook where the left-hand lands awkwardly on the spiral, or having smudges on the hand when writing. These may seem petty for many right-handed individuals but for left-handers, these are great daily irritants because the world seemingly was designed for the benefit of the right-handers.

Researchers believe that the cause of left-handedness is biological and genetic.“The genetic proposal to explain hand preference states that there are two alleles, or two manifestations of a gene at the same genetic location, that are associated with handedness,” Clare Porac, a psychology professor at Pennsylvania State University, wrote in Scientific American.

Porac continued, “One of these alleles is a D gene (for dextral, meaning right) and the other allele is a C gene (for chance). The D gene is more frequent in the population and is more likely to occur as part of the genetic heritage of an individual. It is the D gene that promotes right-hand preference in the majority of humans. The C gene is less likely to occur within the gene pool, but when it is present, the hand preference of the individual with the C gene is determined randomly. Individuals with the C gene will have a 50 percent chance of being right-handed and a 50 percent chance of being left-handed.”

Forcing a Left-Handed Child to Write With Their Right Hand Has Been Linked to Learning Disabilities

Myths about left-handed people dates back to the early days that posit that being left-handed is satanic in origin. Due to this and other myths and superstitions, in some cultures, children have been forced to learn how to use their right hands instead of their left.However, the group ‘Anything Left Handed’ notes that people have developed health problems after being forced to switch as a child.Some reported issues with spelling, poor concentration, stuttering, being shy and withdrawn and poor memory.A 2010 study in England found that forced right-handedness does cause changes to the brain, as left-handers must work harder to change their habits. The study looked at the brain activity of 34 converted left-handers.

The Huffington Post spoke with Paul Silvia, a psychologist at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, who suggested that neuroscience studies are flawed because they often use only right-handed people. He told the Post that with lefties, laterality in the brain is “just so different.”Dutch researcher Roel M. Willems agreed in an essay for Nature journal. “To overcome this problem, it is important to develop and adopt methods of analysis at the level of the individual subject rather than the group level; this would then allow left-handers to be included in the study without negatively affecting statistical outcomes,” Willems wrote.

It’s International Left-Handers Day: Celebrating a world not designed for them

August 13 is the day to celebrate left-handers who awkwardly use digital cameras and scissors and smudge ink from their pen as they write.

By ALANNA RIZZA, Staff ReporterSun., Aug. 13, 2017

Aug 13 is International Left Handers Day — the day when lefties can celebrate their unique trait while also raising awareness for the inconveniences they face in a world made for right-handed people.

About 10 per cent of the world’s population are left-handed, which can be tough since more than 95 per cent of products sold in North America and the world are designed for right-handers.

If you’re a part of the 10 per cent, that means awkwardly handling digital cameras and scissors, smudging the ink from your pen as you write, being told you should be creative because you’re “right-brained” and being forced to sit in right-handed desks.